Mini Sessions: A marketing powerhouse for photographers.
September 12th, 2024
If you’re not neck deep in the world of parenting like many of your clients are, allow me to open your eyes to something that my eyes weren’t opened to until I had a couple grubby, feral kids of my own: every mom wants great family pictures, but no mom is excited about what it takes to get them. “YES! Today is the day I get to dress my kids up in fancy things they never wear but will surely ruin beforehand in order to go take pictures for a full hour that feel completely forced after the WWIII that ensued in the moments leading up” said no parent ever. There’s no way around it…family pictures can absolutely be a pain point when sessions are long and expensive, which can be a big challenge for family photographers.
Until…mini-sessions.
Not only do mini-sessions meet a tremendous need for your clientele, they are actually a huge marketing powerhouse for you, ensuring a big boost in revenue year over year and securing your positive name and reputation within a growing client base. The best part? There are no rules with mini-sessions. Offer them when you want, where you want, to however many people you want throughout the year. Figure out what works for you, and keep at it to secure some consistency for your clients in the all important effort to reconnect with them throughout the year (crucial for repeat business and referrals.)
Taking a dual approach for client engagement.
Let’s talk first about how planning and promoting mini-session opportunities provides a strategy for engaging and re-engaging clients (thereby upping your chances for repeat business.) We’ll look at two different scenarios:
Scenario One: Standard length session.
You successfully complete a pre-holiday full (hour long) session for a family; ie.–the session was lucrative enough to leave you satisfied, and your clients are happy enough with their images that they send you a holiday card featuring a few of their favs. “Sweet…maybe they’ll reach back out next year!” They’re on your mailing list sharing your availability, yet fast forward a year, and you receive a holiday card from them featuring a couple of their favorite candid iPhone pictures from the year. “Hmmm”, you think. Maybe it wasn’t in their budget for this year. Maybe the hour-long session was so stressful with three kids under 7 that they said, “no thanks” for this year. Maybe the ‘family pictures’ to-do just fell off the calendar and they forgot. In any case, I think you might agree that this scenario wreaks of a missed opportunity.
Scenario Two: Mini-sessions.
You successfully complete pre-holiday mini-sessions. Instead of one satisfied family for your afternoon of choice, you have ten. They’re happy with the images they received, the lower price point, and the minimal time commitment rip-off-the-bandaid-feel of it. They walk out of their session thinking this wasn’t so hard after all and with the knowledge that there’s one less thing on their holiday checklist.
In this scenario, you use their satisfaction and the ease of the experience as a springboard for next time. You engage with your clients on social media throughout the year; email product offerings and promotions on special occasions and holidays; you begin discussing your next round of mini’s on social media, and provide your existing clients an avenue to sign up first via email. Your approach is targeted and strategic, understanding that they’re looking for a repeat experience, and understanding that you can proactively lead them to just that.
Offering exclusive products and services.
When you’re solving a problem for the client, you can be as creative as you want with providing a solution. What do I mean? As the photographer and business owner, you have the opportunity to integrate exclusive products and services into your mini-sessions offerings to enhance their appeal. Think: an add-on free print as a “thank you” for repeat business; an opportunity for families to select their Christmas card directly from your website; even a “book early” discount that may just have you sold out before your official launch next year.
Every family is different, so you can expect each one to have unique priorities and preferences. The great news is that when you think strategically and intentionally about these things, you can curtail your offerings to meet each one where they are, thereby elevating the entire experience for that family.
But how do you prompt magical, compelling moments for a family in 15 minutes or less, and how is that supposed to help refresh your digital presence? Circling back to every family being different–find that thing. Find what it is that makes them truly them. This usually means getting them super comfortable with a camera in their faces, and quick. Dive right in with conversation. Find things in common and talk about those things. Get on the kiddos’ levels, play with them and be silly with them in between shots.
In the meantime, be very direct (and confident!) with your posing and direction, and I promise the family will begin to trust you. Trust will then break down the nerves and allow them to be more at ease. Once you get to the point that they feel more like friends than clients, you’ll start to see some sparks. Not just sparks, but sparks that are related to that specific family. Those genuine looks, those sparks–that’s what you want in your digital portfolio, because that’s all any family wants to see: the very best of THEM.
Keeping your digital presence fresh and relevant.
One tremendous benefit of mini-sessions from a photographer standpoint that you may not have thought of? Mini-sessions provide an avenue to refresh and enhance your digital presence… whether it be via social media or your digital portfolio and website. Most photographers rely heavily on Instagram, for example, in promoting their work and engaging with clientele.
But what happens when content slows down, or becomes stale? Think about the impact of a beautiful city image amidst a ton of pretty grassy field images–the setting change alone can be worth the double take. So, if you’re feeling stuck or uninspired for being known as the photographer at this one local grassy park…change it up on your next mini-session day and shoot somewhere else. See what the fresh, new look does for your Instagram feed and broadening your clientele.
While you need to get your mini session clients their galleries around the same date, there’s no pressure to post everyone’s images all at once, or in a single carousel post. Take advantage of the volume and variety of clients you photographed during your minis and spread the photos out over the next several weeks or months, taking into account their preferences for sharing photos online.
Most families these days want to avoid cookie cutter images and fake smiles. When moms see your creative, genuine work on social media, they’ll know, “She can draw the real smile out of little Suzy!” From there? Utilize hashtags and relevant words in your caption, and re-purpose the best of the best to draw in the right customers across all different digital avenues.
Pro tip: Add a question about permissions for social media and website sharing of the session images to your contract or model release–I prefer multiple choice options that include showing children’s faces or not, and separate options for my website and social.
Making the most of your Upselling opportunities.
We haven’t talked much about how profitable mini-sessions can be…I don’t want to seem shallow. But…y’all, mini-Sessions are lucrative! Even doing nothing more than showing up and shooting, you’re looking at profiting thousands of dollars in a few hours on a random Saturday morning.
Me, personally? I typically offer two dates in the fall, with 12 back-to-back 10 minute sessions (5 minutes apart) on each date. I guarantee 8-10 stellar images, and typically deliver 15-18 in the spirit of under-promise/over-deliver. At $350 a pop, I’m looking at $4,200 for 3 hours of shooting per morning. $8,400 for two Saturday mornings? Yes please.
And this doesn’t include upsale opportunities: different strategies include charging per pose, offering special products that aren’t included in your standard sessions (photo ornaments, I’m looking at you), discounting orders over a certain amount–the opportunities are endless with this. Selling features in your client galleries, like Smart Upsell from Zenfolio, can be customized to your preferences and include both tiered discounts and dynamic in-cart messaging to encourage additional purchases.
Turn your images into income.
Sell your photos online from your own custom store. Set up is quick and your clients will enjoy a seamless shopping experience.
The important thing is to find a model that works both for you and your clients, and to stick with it. Your prices can increase year over year if you deem appropriate, but your strategy shouldn’t change. Your clients are more likely to be on board if they know what to expect each year.
Expanding and diversifying your client following.
Another perk of mini-sessions that you may not have thought about is the diversity of subject matter. Gracious. Anyone who shoots predominantly families with kids can acknowledge how nice it is to have a couple in front of the camera from time to time. And as far as couples go… have you ever photographed one who’s been married for 50 years? It’s precious! Do I want to do it exclusively? No. But do I appreciate the one or two a year I get on mini-session marathon day? Absolutely.
Apply this same logic to pets. Big families. Little families. Families with little kids, families with big kids. Couples–it’s a mixed bag on mini-session day. Not only can that be fun, it can be a great opportunity for expanding your typical target clientele. You may discover that you love photographing couples the most, and maybe it springboards you into weddings. Maybe you find that you have a knack for animals, and you start making a name for yourself amongst all the dog owners for being the one who can get Fido to sit like the goodest fella. Whatever floats your boat, you’ll have the opportunity to figure it out on mini-session day.
Great portfolio building option for new photographers.
New to the biz? Welcome. Let me assure you: nothing says, “I’m new here” like a six image portfolio. Do you see how mini-sessions might solve this problem for you? A concentrated marketing effort could put 10 families on your agenda in a single day, providing you with the opportunity for a couple hundred fantastic and unique portfolio building images. And just like that, you’re 10 families just became 20 because they all went and told a friend. Talk about a snowball effect.
Finally, if you’re new, utilize mini-sessions to build in your confidence with pricing and shooting style. Think of it like this: you’re offering structured, affordable shoots–it’s a low pressure situation all around. Toy around with session strategies to find what works for you without feeling like you’re out of your league or taking advantage. Over time and several sessions, you’ll begin to build in your confidence, and mini-sessions will be a favorite offering for both you and your clients.
At this point, it’s worth reiterating that mini-sessions are simply marketing genius. They solve a problem for busy families (many of whom have lower budgets), and they meet a need on the photographer’s end for a boost in revenue and continued client engagement throughout the year. If you haven’t jumped on the mini-session bandwagon yet, now is absolutely the time. Zenfolio has tools that can help when it comes to booking and scheduling sessions and building long-lasting client relationships.
